Anchor for submarine mines



G. E. ELIA.

ANCHOR FOR SUBMARINE MINES.

APPLICATION man 050.21. 1916.

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ANCHOR FOR' SUBMARINE MINES.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.2I. ms.

1,303,272. Patented Ma'y13,1919.

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G. E. ELIA.

ANCHOR FOR SUBMARINE MINES. APPLICATION FILED DEC.2I. 1916.

Patented Mag 13, 1919. I SHEETSSHEET'3.

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APPLICATION mm 050.21. 1916.

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ANCHOR FOR SUBMARINE MINES. APPLICATION FILED DELHI/I916.

Patented May 13; 1919.

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GIOVANNI EMANUELE ELIA, 0F TURI'N, ITALY.

, a ANCHOR FOR SUBMARINE MINES.

Specification 01 Letters Patent.

Patented May 13, 1919.

Application filed December 21, 1916. Serial No. 188,236.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GIOVANNI EMANUELE ELIA, a subject of the King of Italy, and a resident of Turin, Italy, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Anchors for Submarine Mines, of which the following is a specification;

My.invention relates to improvements in means for anchoring submarine mines, and it consists in the combinations, constructions, and arrangements herein described and claimed.

An object of my invention is to provide an automatic anchor for submarine mines, in which the mooring winch is positively locked in position when the mine reaches a predetermined position with respect to the surface of the body of water in which it is moored.

A further object of my invention is to provide means for depositing a mine and for permitting the mine to rise to a given height and for accurately gaging the position of the mine.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification, and the novel features of the invention will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

My invention is illustratedin the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, and in which:

certain parts being shown in section;

Fig. 2 is a view showing a number of mines and various stages of their movements;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section through one of the tubes shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of a mine ready for shipping;

Fig. 5 is a side elevation showing the release of the mine holding means after the mine has been deposited from the tube;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view of the mine anchor;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view through a weight; i

Fig. 8 is an enlarged detail View of the valve mechanimn carried by the weight in Fig. 7

Fig. 9 is a sectional VlBW along the lme 99 of Fig. 8;

Fig. 10 is a view along the line 1 10 of re 1 isa view of a mine laying vessel,

'Number 1,095,831, dated May 5, 1914.

Referring now particularly to Fig. 6, I have shown therein a mine 1 which rests normally in the saddle 2 of the anchor casing 3. The latter is provided with a central shaft 4, which is journaled in partitions '5 and which bears a winch 6. The shaft 4 is prolonged and has on its end an eccentric 7 whose strap 8 is connected. by means of a rod 9 with a pistonlO, the shaft 9 being prolonged through the bottom of the cylinder 11 in which the piston 10 is located.

'Stufling boxes 12 are provided at each end of the cylinder. The cylinder casing is provided with a by-pass 13, and a needle valve 14 is provided, by means of which the flow through the .by-pass of the liquid 15 contained in the cylinder may be regulated. This liquid may be of any suitable sort, but is preferably oil, the arrangement described constituting a dash pot for retarding the movement of the winch.

Secured to the winch is a cable 16 which passes upwardly through a-guide member 17, and whose end is secured to a ring 18 in the bottom of the mine. It will be noted that the mine rests on the anchor on its side.

At 19 I have shown a weight, this weight being secured to the cable 16 in the manner shown in Fig. 7. It will be. seen from Figs. 7 and 8 that the weight 19 is provided with a lever 20 which is pivoted at 21 and which is provided with a pivoted locking-pin 22 arranged to enter a groove 23 in a sleeve 23 which is securely fastened to the cable by rivets 24 or in any other suitable manner. The lever 20 is normally held in position by means of a U-shaped spring locking member 25, which passes through an openlng in an arm 26 on the weight 19. The ends of the looking member enter a slot 20 in the lever 20, where they are held in frictional engagement.

Secured to the lever 20 by means of a bail 20 is a valve 27 having a guide stem 28 arranged to enter a portion of the weight. A spring 29 bears on the valve. It will thus be seen that the weight 19 is locked to the cable 16 until the locking pin 22 shall be released. The manner of its release will be explained hereinafter.

As has been stated, the mine 1 rests on the saddle 2 of the anchor on its side. The

'anchor casing is provided with spring pressed holding arms 30 which are hlnged at 31 to the upper part of the anchor and which bear curved holding lugs 32 arranged to engage the spherical surface of the mine. In shipping the mine these arms 30 which, it will be noted, are on opposite sides of the mine, are held together by any suitable means, such as the turn buckle 33, see Fig. 4.

In Fig. 1 I have shown a mine laying vessel, the particular construction of which forms no part of the present invention, ex-

cept in so far as it cooperates with the mine itself, in the manner'hereinafter described.

This vessel is provided with rearw-ardly inclined chutes or tubes 36 havin covers 37 which may be raised to permit-t e entrance of the mine into the tubes.

The arms 30 of the anchors are pressed so as to clamp the mine in position, and then the mine is lowered into the tube." The tube is preferably of square cross section, such as that shown in Fig. 1%,but it may be circular, such as shown it, 'Fig. 15, or of any other suitable shape. I

,The mine and its anchor are lowered until an opening 3* in the casing and 6, comes into registration with .OIle of the locking devices 38. These locking devices 38 consist of a screw -which passes through a stuffing box, ".the end ofethe screw being arrangedto extend through the opening 3 in the anchor casing 3, so as to hold the mine in position. The-walls 'ofthe tube 36 keep the arms 30 pressed inwardly so as tO'hOld the mine 1 in position. As will be seen from the drawings, there may be one or more mines in the same tube.

From the foregoing description of the various parts of the device, the operation thereof may be readily understood.

The mines are disposed in the manner shown in Fig. 1, and when the vessel reaches the place where the mines are to be laid, one of the screws 38 is withdrawn and the mine.

with its anchor, descends, the bottom of the tube 36 being open. The momentthat the arms 30 clear the bottom of the tube 36, they fall downwardly into the position shown 1n Fig. 5, therebyfreeing the mine 1. The mine with its anchor descends due to 3, see Figs. 3

the momentum, but eventually the buoyant force of the mine Will cause the latter to rise. In practice there will be very little movement of the mine with respect to its anchor,

until the latter rests at the bottom of the body of water.

In Fig. 2, A denotes substantially the position of the anchor and mine when the anchor has reached the bottom. Position B denotes a osition taken by the mine sometime after t e anchor has reached the bottom. The floating mine 1 will of course limit of the chain 40 is. reached, the continued movement will-cause the locking member 25 to be pulled out of its socket, thereby freeing the lever arm 20. The arm 20 will not be swung outwardly becausethe pressure of the Water onthe valve 27 is greater than the tension of the spring 29., but as the mine continues to rise .it will, reach a predetermined position where this water pressure is less than the\spring pressure, whereupon the latter will open the valve and this will move the arm20 soas to release the locking pin 22 from the sleeve 23, see Fig. 7, thus permitting the weight 19 to slide ofi from the sleeve and down the cable 16, where it hits the arm 41, see Fig. 11.

-The arm 41 is pivotally mounted at 42- to the top of the casing see Fig. 6, and this -armis' held by a soft'metal pin 43 which passes through brackets 44 out .of engage-. ment with. teeth 45 on the edge of the winch 6. When. however, th weight drops on the'end of the arm 41, the soft metal pin 43- is sheared and the arm is forced into engagement with the teeth 45,thus stopping the Winch and hence preventing further upward movement of the mine.

It wilhthus be seen that the min will assume a predetermined positio'nat' any desired distance below the surface of the water. In view of the fact that the final location of the mine depends u-ponthe water pressure to which the valve which controls the weight 19 has been subjected, it is obvious that it is not-necessary to know the depth of the water in order to locate a mine at a predetermined distance below the surface of the water. Herein lies one advantage of this device over those mines which will rise to a. predetermined height above the bottom of the water since, in the latter case, in

order to locate a mine at a predetermined depth below the top of the water, the total depth of the water must-be known.

I claim:

l. The combination with a submarine mine, of an anchor therefor, a winch carried by the anchor, a cable carried by the winch, and connected to said mine, means for stopping the winch, and means carried by the cable and adapted to be released when the mine has risen to a predetermined distance from the surface of the body of water for engaging the winch stopping device whereby the winch is stopped.

9. The combination with a fioatable submarine mine, of an anchor therefor, a winch carr'ied-by the anchor, a cable carried by the winch and connected t0 said mine, means for stopping the winch, a weight carried by the cable and slidable therealong, and means actuated by a predetermined water pressure for releasing the weight during the upward movement of the mine and permitting it to engage the winch stopping means.

3. The combination with a submarine mine, of an anchor therefor, a winch carried by the anchor, a cable carried by the winch and having connection with said mine, means-for stopping said winch, and a weight adapted to be raised by the mine and to be released when the latter reaches a predetermined distance from the surface of the body of water, and to engage the winch stopping device in its fall, thereby causing the stopping of the winch.

, 4. The combination with a floatable submarine mine, of an anchor therefor, a winch carried by the anchor,v a .cable wound on said winch and having connectlon w1th said mine, means adapted to be brought into engagement with the winch for stopping the latter, a weight carried by the cable, means for normally locking the weight to the cable, said means being arranged to release the weight at a given water pressure during the upward movement of the mine, the falling of the weight engaging the winch stopping means thereby stopping the winch.

5. The combination with a fioatable submarine mine, of an anchor therefor, a winch carried by the anchor, a cable wound on said winchand having connection with said mine, means adapted to be brought into engagement with a portion of the winch for stopping'the latter, a weight carried'by the cable, means for normally docking the weight to the cable, said means being ar-' ranged to release the weight at a given water pressure during the upward movement of the mine, the falling of the weight engaging the winch stopping means, thereby stopping the winch, and means for retarding the movement of the which.

6. The combination with a floatable submarine mine, of an anchor therefor, a winch carried by the anchor, a cable wound on said winch and having connection with said mine, means adapted to be brought into engagement with a portion of the winch for stopping the latter, a weight carried by the cable, means for normally locking the weight to the cable, said means being arranged to release the weight at a given water pressure during the upward movement of the mine, the falling of the weight engaging the winch stopping means, thereby stopping the winch, and means for retarding the movement of the winch, said last named means comprising an eccentric carried by the handle of the winch, and a dash pot connected with the eccentric.

7. The combination with a floatable submarine mine, of an anchor therefor, a winch carried by the anchor, a cable wound on said winch and having connection with said mine, means adapted to be brought'into engagement with a portion of the winch for ranged to release the weight at a given water pressure during the upward movement of the mine, the falling of the Weight engaging the winch stopping means thereby stopping the winch, means for retarding the movement of the winch, said means comprising an eccentric carried by the handle of the winch, and a dash pot connected with the eccentric, and means for regulating the movement of the piston of the dash pot.

8. The combination with a floatable submarine mine, of an anchor therefor, a winch carried by the anchor, a cable wound on said winch and having connection with said mine, ratchet teeth carried by said winch, a lever adapted to be brought into engagement with the ratchet teeth for stopping the winch, means for normally keeping the lever out of engagement with the ratchet teeth, a

at a given water pressure during the upward movement of the mine, the falling 'weight engaging the lever and forcing it from its normal position into engagement with the teeth Of'the winch, stopping the latter.

9. The combination with a projecting tube, of an,an'chor' forsubmarine mines, said anchor being normallyrdisposed within the tube, and a mine carried by the an chor at the top thereof, spring pressed means secured to said anchor and held in en agement with-said mine by the walls 0 the tube for securing the mine to the anchor, removable means for supporting the anchor in the tube, the movement of the mine and anchor out of the tube serving to disengage the arms from the mine and thereby permit the mine to leave its anchor.

10. The combination with a projecting tube, of an anchor for floatable submarine mines, said anchor being normally disposed within the tube, a mine carried by the anchor at the top thereof, spring pressed means'secured to said anchor and held in engagement with said mine by the walls of the tube for securing the mine to the anchor, removable means for supporting the anchor in the tube,

the IIIO BIDGHt of, the mine and anchor out of the tube serving to disengage the arms from the mine and thereby permit the mine to leave its anchor, a winch carried by the anchor, a. cable carried by the winch and being connected with ,the mine, a lever for stopping the winch, a weight carried by themines, said anchor being normallydisposed within the tube, a mine carried by the anchor at the top thereof, spring pressed means secured to said anchor and held in engagement with said mine by the walls of the tube for securing the mine to the anchor, removable means for supportin the anchor in the tube, the movement 0 the mine and anchor out of the tube serving to disengage the arms from the mine and thereby permit the mine to leave its anchor, a

winch carried by the anchor, a cable car-' ried. by the winch and being connected with the mine, a lever for stopping the winch, a weight carried by the cable and arranged to fall on the lever to bring the latter into engagement-with the winch, means for disengaging the weight from the cable at a predetermined distance from the surface of the body of water during the upward movement of the mine, said disengagin means comprising a locking pin for lockmg the weight to the cable, a sprmg pressed lever carried by the weight for supporting the said locking pin, and a chain connected to said last named locking pin at one end and to the anchor at the other end.

GIOVANNI EMANUELE ELIA. 

